While the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority (NARA) bill pending for two years, the Human Resource Development Ministry (MHRD) has proposed to make accreditation mandatory from 2013 for public and private institutions through executive order to continue with reform process.

HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju said both, University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have been directed to prepare benchmarks for the accreditation process. Also the state governments will be made responsible to establish accreditation agencies for inspection process.

While currently only 15% of the higher education institutions are accredited, the the mandatory accreditation will help students assess the quality of programs and courses, physical infrastructure and faculty.

AICTE has also been asked to set up another accreditation agency – Indian Board of Accreditation (IBA) – to assist the existing National Board of Accreditation in inspections of institutions. “AICTE will set up IBA by February,” Pallam Raju said.

There are 60,000 programs that are accredited under AICTE with 3,800 technical institutions, 3,700 management institutions, 3500 polytechnics, 240 hotel management institutions and 60 applied art institutions. AICTE is already under heavy burden with pending application of the renewal of accreditation, introduction of new disciplines or other expansion plans. By adding IBA, the capacity of AICTE will increase, said S S Mantha, AICTE Chairman.